Just ask any country boy that has worked on farms. he
will tell you Holstein and Jersey cows are dairy cows.

When they no longer reproduce or is dry, they are ready
for the slaughter house. (the average productive life of a Holstein is
3 to 4 years.)

My questions are,

What was the prior history of that Holstein cow in WA
that tested positive for Mad Cow Disease?

Does Mad Cow Disease have any effect on milk produced
by a diseased cow?

Agricultral Secretary Ann Veneman did not mention cow
blood, when she mentioned the cows brain and spinal cord was not safe.

(Note - The USDA ALLOWS cow blood to be fed to all calves.
-ed)

Her comment saying she would not be afraid to eat the
muscle parts of the diseased cow came as no surprise to me while considering
her background.

Wonder what Agricultral Secretary Ann Veneman would think
of the article below?

MAD COW HUMAN BLOOD MIX

September 29, 1996

A substitute for human blood made from cows' blood is
being tested on patients in America, writes Roger Dobson Cows' blood is
tested on humans HUMAN TRIALS of a blood substitute derived from cows are
beginning in America and could soon take place in Europe. BioPure, the
American company developing the substitute, claims it is free of BSE and
other contamination, but one big pharmaceuticals company working on a rival
product has warned that there may be problems with using animal products.

It says the safety of blood taken from cows can never
fully guaranteed. Baxter Healthcare is working on a similar product, but
made from out-of-date human blood. It says: "Viruses present in animal
blood are not as well characterised and are therefore more difficult to
detect than those in human blood. Animal-sourced products also must be
subject to rigorous purification procedures since contamination with animal-derived
proteins can cause allergic reactions." Researchers point out, too,
that there is no foolproof test for detecting BSE. BioPure, which uses
haemoglobin processed from cows' blood, is carrying out trials in America.
Other studies are planned for Europe. A spokesman says: "We are very
aware of the BSE issue and we have a very significant herd-management programme
that really prevents that from being a problem. We also have a proprietary
process that we believe would take it out even if it was in there.

To date BSE has not been detected in America." BioPure
is testing one of two bovine blood products that use haemoglobin taken
from cows. A big attraction is that animal haemoglobin is in almost limitless
supply and is cheap. The BioPure product is one of the first-generation
blood substitutes in development that are based on haemoglobin from various
biological sources, including human and cows' blood, or are entirely synthetic,
made from a solution of petrofluorocarbons. The substitutes, which have
a limited life, offer two distinct advantages. In operations, much transfused
blood is lost and these substitutes can be used instead of blood during
surgery.

Second, in trauma cases the synthetic blood can be administered
immediately without losing precious time blood-typing and cross-matching
as is required with real blood. And unlike real blood, which keeps for
only six weeks, the new haemoglobin materials can be stored for six months
to a year and stockpiled for disaster relief. The substitutes may also
reduce the risk of viral transmissions and may be more beneficial for a
range of patients, including victims of strokes and heart attacks, because
they get oxygen to areas that blood alone cannot reach and protect the
functioning of vital organs. The range of new substitute products, so far
used in trials on up to 1,000 patients worldwide, has the potential to
change the way millions of casualty and other acute patients are treated.
And the worldwide market for such products is estimated to be worth as
much as #3 billion a year.

As many as eight different companies worldwide are currently
working on trials of substitute blood. This synthetic blood is made in
a variety of ways, processing haemoglobin taken from real blood that has
passed its use-by-date - as Baxter is doing - or by using haemoglobin taken
from cows or from bacteria. For decades scientists have been looking for
a good blood substitute that is free of viral infections and that can be
given to patients without fear of side-effects, and that will help to conserve
stocks of donated blood. Natural blood carries out a number of functions,
including transporting oxygen around the body. Haemoglobin, the iron-containing
protein that gives blood its red colour, picks up the oxygen at the lungs
and circulates it around the body, serving vital organs and tissue.

When the patient loses a large amount of blood, the blood
pressure drops and tissue and organs can be deprived of oxygen. Doctors
usually give salt or protein solutions to patients who have lost a great
deal of blood. They have the effect of expanding the volume of the remaining
blood so that the heart can pump effectively, but in large doses there
can be side-effects. Baxter Healthcare, which is involved in trials in
hospitals in Britain, is already building the world's biggest factory for
making blood substitutes. Construction of the plant in Switzerland will
be finished next year with commercial production starting up in 1998. At
the end of this year the company expects to apply to the regulatory authorities
in Europe for marketing approval. Baxter Healthcare extracts haemoglobin
from outdated human blood.

Because haemoglobin breaks in half when removed from
the red blood cell, Baxter's researchers are using an aspirin-type drug
and patented technology to keep it bonded together. This chemically stabilised
haemoglobin solution - brand name HemAssist - can be subjected to anti-viral
processes that cannot be applied to real blood. Since doctors carried out
the first blood transfusion in 1667, there has been a search for a truly
artificial blood. When haemoglobin was first separated in the mid 18th
century, hopes were raised, but now researchers believe they are on the
right track.